LAKE WORTH COMMISSION OKS $25,000 SETTLEMENT

LAKE WORTH -- City Commissioners on Monday approved an offer of $25,000 to settle a lawsuit filed in April by Daniel Sewell, former business affairs manager of the now-defunct Lake Worth Utilities Authority.

City Attorney Alan Fallik recommended the commission attempt to settle the case out of court. The city's liability insurance company would be obligated to pay the remaining $45,000 toward the proposed $70,000 settlement offer, Commissioner Ed Shepherd said.

In a confidential memo to the commission, with large red letters stamped on its face advising commissioners not to reveal the contents to the public or the press, Fallik explained he simply did not believe the city had a strong position in the case.

Shepherd said Sewell had originally asked for $57,000 as compensation for having lost his job with the authority because the City Commission abolished the authority unilaterally in 1984.

The authority subsequently sued and ultimately won in the Florida Supreme Court, which ordered the city to reinstitute the controversial authority.

The commission then held a referendum in which city voters opted to end the authority. The Florida Legislature later officially abolished the authority that had controlled the city electrical utility operations for many years, often clashing with City Commissioners.

In his suit, Sewell claimed the city embarrassed and distressed him by ordering police to seize his personal and business effects, "generally treating him as if he were engaged in criminal activity when in fact (he) was completely without fault."

Sewell demanded compensation for income lost because of the dissolution plus punitive damages.

As of May, Sewell was a director of human resources at the corporate offices of a large bank in Palm Beach County.

Fallik also recommended that the commission not settle out of court with former authority comptroller Tom Mitchell, who also filed suit claiming damages for losing his job. Mitchell had asked the commission for $100,000 in damages. He had been on his $33,500-a-year job for 44 days when he was fired.

The city has a strong position in the Mitchell case, Fallik said.

The commission had in the past settled out of court with members of the defunct authority and its executive director, Thomas Forbes, who agreed to drop their lawsuits and to not sue the city in the future. The officials received a total of $196,697. The commission also agreed to pay about $105,000 in fees to three attorneys who represented authority officials.

Forbes now sells real estate. Mitchell was hired by the Satter Company as vice president and corporate comptroller after the authority was dissolved.